Busy Week

Since my last post it's gotten much warmer out (though it won't last). It's actually 50 degrees outside. Very nice at least for Indiana. Most of the snow is pretty much gone, except maybe for Walmart where there is a huge pile of seriously dirty snow. Nasty looking. We played frisbee for the first time in a very long time on Sunday night and oh boy am I feeling it today. It's feels good to be sore again though. School's going pretty well. I got my first test back today and I got an A. Sweet. This week I've got a lot going on. I'm finally not working at 6am on Saturday...I was really getting sick of it. It really screws up my sleep schedule. Other than that not much to report. Til next time then.

Week Two

So here I am in the middle of week two of the spring semester. It's hard to believe. I've seen from Sarah's blog that the east has some snow. Not to be outdone, I took some pictures of the foot and half we have here in Indiana. It's been here for a week at least. In the first photo, you can see our street and I was try to get a picture of icicle you see at the top dripping, but I kept missing (I think the shutter was slow). So in the second picture, along with Benny's car you can see the massive icicles hanging of the edge of the roof. It's rather scary getting into the car, one could fall and stab you. In the last picture is the biggest icicle which has to be around six or seven feet long. It's huge. I broke a couple off and was threw them like javelin. A group of us went sledding on Monday and then came back here to have hot chocolate and cookies. It was pretty hilarious to watch people go down the hill because the snow was so deep the sled and the people on it would just dissapear in a cloud of snow. Well that's all for now.

Happy New Year

Well, you all get a treat. I'm posting. Exciting for you all. Not much I'm gonna say except I'm glad the worst year of my life (so far) is almost over. And it's ending par for the course. Yay.

Sad Times

Well my friends, it is with deep sadness that I must report that Archie has died. I came home tonight to find him lying lifeless. Though I only knew him a short while, he became something special to me. From his frightened squeaks when I washed him, to the quiet way he would sit in my hand or on my lap. I couldn't believe how quickly he bonded with me and transitioned from panicked scampering at anything to letting me stroke his tiny body. He will be missed. Below is a picture of him in my hand.

Odd Times

Gee, it's been a while since I've posted. What a surprise. It's been a rather interesting week. On Wednesday, I gave a drum lesson to a teen in the church. It's kinda challenging, but I enjoy it. Last night I made some Chinese stir-fry. It was amazing. Best homemade stir-fry I've had for sure (sorry Mom :-). Afterward I went to play Frisbee with some friends. Who should show up but Meghan Wallwork who has been in New York since May. There was only 7 of us so the game was pretty chill. But Josh threw the frisbee over the barbed wire fence and into a swamp. We stood around quite while trying to figure out how to get it. Teak insanely went to the end of the fence and clawed his way back through the swamp to get it. When he return triuphantly with fribee in hand Jon noticed this guy getting into the dumpster. We all turned to look as he got out and started jogging across the field. Moments later a cop appeared yelling for him to stop. The guy jump over the fence (it was high and topped with barbed wire). The cop stayed by the fence and cop car pulled up next to us and asked if we had seen the guy running. Josh told him what happened and they took off to head him off. We went to Jon's house and watched Aliens (I made some kettle corn). In the morning I woke up and started going about my day, making coffee etc. Suddenly I notice a dead mouse lying by my door. It was probably around three weeks old. I was a little freaked because I had no idea where it came from and how it died. I scooped it up and threw it into the woods. About an hour later a second one came crawling out from under the oven. I scooped it up and put in a box. I didn't know what to do with it because it was too young to make on it's own. I pulled out the stove to find out where they were coming from. I found that the large electicity feed for the oven had large hole around it and nearby was a box of poison mouse food. I figure the mother ate some and must have died in the nest somewhere and the babies started emerging looking for food and one ate the poison and died. Thing is usual liters are around 5-10 so I'm afraid more will come. We'll see.

My Birthday and Some Thoughts

So today is my birthday. It's been a great day. Lots of birthday wishes from everybody. My friends here organized a party for me and it was awesome. Jocelyn made and brought the Lite Brite sign above. Diane, Jen, Josh, and Jon gave me some hilarious cards. Oh, and I forgot, Ben and Jan kindly gave me a book. "The Gospel and Personal Evangelism" by Mark Dever I think it was. Very nice of them. All in all, a good time guaranteed for all.


This is a post I've been thinking about for a couple of days. It's been bouncing around in my head for a while. I will warn you this is gonna be a long post. It really started about a month or so ago. I was given a guitar for Christmas and have been teaching myself to play. A month ago my friend asked me if it was hard for me to consistently practice. He mentioned that he often didn't practice and it was hard to be diligent. I replied that I really didn't have problems like that. I loved to play it and practice. If I had free time, nearly always I used at some point to play. This really began a thoughtful consideration of why this was so. I looked at my life and noticed that there was little that I was diligent and consistent about. I would always get bored with whatever I had started and leave it unfinished. For example, writing (hehe), I would often get a grand idea, start it and then forget about it a few days later.


I found that this was not true playing guitar. And as I thought back, neither with playing drums. I mean, I taught myself to play drums. I loved it. I practiced for at least an hour every day (much to the annoyance of my family). I would still do so, but my living situation doesn't allow it. I realized that music must be really important to me. I knew I liked music, but I didn't think it was more then that. Music must be something special to me, because playing instruments is one of the few things I pursue with a great deal of passion and commitment. But, I thought back even farther to when I was being taught to play the piano as a young child. I really didn't like it. For years my patient teacher would bear with my nearly complete lack of practice. So, there was an instance of playing an instrument where I was not diligent.


As I continued to remember piano lessons, I thought a time when my teacher wanted me to work on my rhythm and instructed me to listen to the drummer and keep time with my foot (she was from our church). I thought, “Sweet! I do that already!” If any of you see me worship, I'm sure you've noticed that I am always doing that even to this day. It's not even conscious, I have to make an effort to stop :-). It's funny how my primary instrument is the drums now when I remember that time. Later, after years of being taught classical piano, my teacher began to teach us worship songs. I still remember the first song she taught us, “To Be With You”. I was so excited. I practiced like crazy to learn it. I was the first of her students to learn to play it. I learned about half of “We Rejoice In the Grace of God”, then I had to quit to help save my parents money. I remember though being so excited to play worship songs. I thought that this was due to the fact that I knew the songs, but as I've been thinking lately, I believe there is a deeper reason.


So why all this? What have I been babbling on about like this for? Well, because I've realized something. I love music. More then that though. I've come to understand that I love music not for music sake, but because I love to worship God and praise Him through music. When did I really become interested in playing piano? When I began learning worship songs. When I taught myself to play drums, what kind of songs did I practice most to and what was my goal? I practice primarily to worships songs and I most wanted to be able to play on the worship team. When I'm learning songs on the guitar today what songs am I learning and why do I play? I learn worship songs for the most part and all I really want to able to do is be able to whip out my guitar when friends are hanging out and sing worship songs together. This doesn't mean I don't wanna excel. Sure I want to be able play drums like Neil Peart or Mike Portnoy. Sure I would like to play guitar like Jimi Hendrix, but my main desire for and joy from music is worshiping God and giving Him glory. I love music because I love to glorify God with it. I can think of an recent example; just recently the new NA Band album dropped, “Looked Upon”. Now musically I really don't like this album. The mix, the instrumentation just don't work. The bass is non-existent, the drums sound like toys. The only thing that sounds good in the acoustic guitar. Yet, I keep listening to it. Over and over. I 'm learning to play the songs. Why? I think it's because the songs are rooted in the scripture and the Gospel and my soul is being turned towards God in worship. Here is an example of where musically I don't like something, but because God is receiving glory I like it.


Now I'm not saying all this to pat myself on the back. It's really because I'm so humbled by God's graciousness to me. When I see that my desire in and through music is to glorify Him, I'm aware that this desire didn't come from me. Left to my own, I would despise worship songs, and I would glory in music itself and seek to gain my own glory through it. God has graciously given me a love for Him, in particular through music, and I am so humbled and grateful to Him for it and all that He has done for me. This makes me want to praise Him. It's an endless cycle!! I love it!! Therefore, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power.” Rev 4:11.

New Attitude Log: Supplemental

Hey I've uploaded my photos from New Attitude to facebook if you wanna see them. Also to flickr for all those who don't have a facebook.

Link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/theunderminer/

Na: Day One

So I'm gonna start a recap of all that happened at New Attitude. You've read about the trip there, so I'll just add some funny things that happened. When we stopped for lunch, it was a gas station/Subway and most of us ate there. Stephen was dying for some coffee. You should have seen him frantically search the exit food signs for a Starbucks. So he and couple of guys went to Wendy's and he managed to get some hot water to make coffee. Jonny Altrogge and I randomly decided to get cheapo nerf guns that the gas station had. We spent the rest of the trip ambushing each other. We finally pulled into the Gault House hotel around 4-4:30pm. And so started the crazy rush that is arriving at New Attitude.

After everyone's luggage was off, Stephen and I took the vans to park them. As we entered, there's that height bar hanging and both vans scraped it. I was was pretty nervous that the vans would scape inside. The whole time I was ducking my head (as if that made a difference). But there was enough clearance and after parking in the farthest point away possible, we returned to the hotel. I had been calling Aaron to get into the room, but he wasn't picking up (seems like no one did all of Na). I really didn't wanna be standing there forever, so I tried Josh and Shanna to see they knew where he was. He finally called me and I went up to the room. He and I went and got registered and then I went to see Gen, who was on the same floor as us, which was pretty cool. I went over to the first session with her and a few of her roommates.

Worship started, it was loud and sounded like crap, but definitely better then last year. Usually it really distracts me, but God gave me grace to be able to worship undistracted. There was the usual 4-5 songs that no one knew (at least outside of Cov Life). That's one of the things that bothers me, they always sing lots of new songs, and most of the time they are not that great. There are some outstanding songs that aren't new. Oh and what is wrong with original version of hymns? Stephen and I were talking about this and the one song Nail My Glory in particular was kinda odd, and left him wondering what he was singing. After worship Josh Harris opened the conference with a message what the right response to God's word is. He gave three examples from scripture: Josiah (2nd Kings 22), Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 36), and Jeremiah (Jeremiah 15).

After the message we splint into community groups. This year they really separated everyone. There were two people I knew in my group. Zac Dimaio and Rachael Efthimiou. That was it. We were lead by Jimmy Canon (?). The group was then made into about a dozen smaller family groups and mine was led by a guy named Seth Ranneberger. We spent most of the time just getting to know one another. There was a girl in my family group, Liz Dudley, who grew up in Indiana and knew everybody, which I thought was pretty cool. The community groups ended and Zac and I went searching for food. We went to Champions and were eventually joined by Gen and Lauren. Actually a little later a big group from Cov Fell showed up. Zac and I headed back to the hotel after eating. I pretty much just hit the sack (I'm not a young as I used to be).

Andrew and Courtney crashed in our room, because they had reserved their room for the day before and since they weren't there, they lost the reservation. They got a room for the last two nights, but had to stay in ours the first. I ripped some blankets from the two beds for them and we all settled in to sleep.